This is Unpossible

I'm a little proud of myself.

Today I rode 100 miles on my bike in the Minnesota Ironman Bike ride, and I didn't get a sunburn. I even got a little suntan. This is unpossible. My skin, for my entire recollection, is one of three colors, ghastly, red, or peeling.

This is like divine intervention. It's April, and my skin hasn't seen the sun since September. I spent nearly 7 hours in 80 degrees sun with very little cloud coverage.

I did, however, shellack all exposed skin with SPF 50 at 7:30am, but I didn't expect it to last.

Anyways, I hope to keep this up and not get burnt this summer. I've done it way too many times.

Long detail on the ride below........

As far as the ride goes, I spent the first 30 or so miles riding with Clif and Jesse, who are both in phenomenal shape, as they've been training for Ironman Zurich. After a while, I just couldn't hold at their pace.

So I rode alone, and as I was passing through the tiny town of Montgomery, I was passed by a large group of riders (who came up on my left). There was a right turn that the front riders didn't see, and one came across the entire group and caught another cyclist. The unlucky guy he ran into was directly in front of me, and cartwheeled over his handlebars, helmet smacking the pavement. I was able to get out of the way, but missed the rest stop. 20 miles down the road I was out of fluids, with another 15 to the next town.

That hurt.

I stopped and chugged gatorade, water, and had some nutrigrain bars. I took a salty nutroll with me. That salted nutroll provided some great energy when I was on the road. I'm going to use them in future long rides.

Nutrition on long endurance events is something I'm still honing. My sweat composition, as I've discovered, is very salt dense. I eventually got behind on my electrolyte intake, got some leg cramps, and bonked. I ran into Jesse and Clif at the last rest stop, and Jesse gave me a salt pill, which probably helped me for about 5 miles. The last 15 miles had a heavy headwind, which was exacerbated by a slow leak in my back tire. I stopped to pump it up a couple times, but it ended up flatting with about 3 miles to go.

The last hill back to Lakeville High parking lot was some of the slowest cycling I've done. Ever.

Lessons Learned:
+I sweat alot, and have a high need to replace electrolytes.
+Get ahead on hydration and calorie intake
+Don't ride with a leaking tire.
-Dont buy Specialized tubes. They suck

I'm fucking going

I am fucking ecstatic.

I just went on not one, but 2 bike rides this afternoon.

then I ate bruschetta.

then I spent 85,750 Icelandic Kronor.

That's right. I just purchased plane tickets to Norway. And Iceland.




I've been waiting to do this for a very long time. I leave a month from today.

Shooting

Usually, when a psychopath shoots down a bunch of people, the gun control people go nuts.

I agree and disagree with them.

Exhibit A: The second amendment in full text(as you never, ever, ever ,ever see it)

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Funny you never hear the whole thing in it's entirety, isn't it? I bet if you did, people might come to the conclusion that the people who wrote it were talking about keeping a well regulated military.

I'll digress for a second to say that I believe that you should have guns if you want them, but I'm talking strictly about hunting rifles. You all know I grew up on a farm, and I used to shoot all kinds of guns. What you probably don't know is that I grew pretty bored of them. That's another story.

However.

I do not believe handguns or assault rifles should be allowed to be owned by just anyone. Handguns and assault rifles have ONE SINGULAR PURPOSE! THAT IS TO KILL PEOPLE! KILLING PEOPLE IS AGAINST THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AND YOUR GOD. Humans who have reasons or duties to kill other humans should be allowed to have them. Some of these people are also allowed to own/use flame throwers, land mines, bazookas, intercontinental ballistic missiles, F-14's Tomcats, and nuclear weapons.

Your arguements:
"We need to have guns that can compete with military so we can fight the government if it becomes a police state" Shut the fuck up. Rambo was a movie. You and your one M-16 and Glock won't stand 10 minutes against a police sniper, a tank, or a mortar shell. Step into the real world for a second, and use your vote to make sure the government doesn't end up that way.

"I need to protect my house" Really? 9 times out of 10, this comes from a suburbanite who lives nowhere near crime. But, I'll bet you have a job, and you're away from home 8 hours+ a day. Any criminal that wants to stay out of jail OR WHO KNOWS YOU HAVE A GUN, but still wants your shit will rob your house when you are away. News Flash: Confrontation is not something any burglar wants. Get an alarm, you nitwit.(or stay at home 24 hours with your trusty sidearm)

"Statistically, having a pool in your backyard is more dangerous than having a gun" Yes. You are right. But you're forgetting that most firearm crimes are committed with stolen guns. The guns YOU bought to protect your house, ironically. And another thing.....I hear about accidental shootings all the time. I NEVER hear about accidental stabbings. If you're so scared, get a knife.

Back to the beginning: The solution to the problem of psychopaths with guns:

drumroll.............

Get real help to people who are mentally ill before something bad happens.

Good news, Bad News

Completely unrelated, but I figured they could both go here anyways.

Good news:
I've payed off more than 80% of my trip to Canada AND the work to my car without touching savings. I'm going to try making the trip to Norway--my work has approved 2.5 weeks of vacation time!

Bad news.
Kurt Vonnegut is dead, and Fox News slimed him. Throw down some lightning from the heavens on Bill O'Reilly, will you Kurt?

RIP Ollie

Current mood: nothin's gonna breaka my stride

My Olympus c-765 ultrazoom, Ollie, is dead.

He took a last gasp downloading photos to my computer before he died. His lens was permanently extended and wouldn't retract, respond to any buttons, or power off.

I took him in to the camera doctors at National Camera Exchange, who told me it would cost a minimum of $180, and 8 weeks turnaround from the factory. I purchased Ollie for about $230.

I took him home and did emergency screwdriver surgery. "Shit, I'm a mechanical engineer, and this appears to be a mechanical malfunction." Surgery did not have a postive outcome.

Ollie lived well. He took about 3500 photos, travelled to Michigan's UP, North Dakota's Badlands, the Boundary waters, the tops of mountains in Utah, Colorado, and British Colombia, Whidbey Island in Puget sound, the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Miami, and the desert of Arizona. He might've even taken naked pictures of girls...

No way I'm going without a camera. I was thinking about buyin a nice canon 20D, but I can't afford it with that Norway trip coming up, so minutes ago I bought Ollie's successor, SP-510 at Buydig.com. About the same price with more features. Buydig.com is also one of the highest rated online electronic stores according to consumer reports. Free Shipping!

Seriously. This year is getting expensive.....